


Proditio

by dovahgriin



Series: Now and Forever [1]
Category: Elder Scrolls, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: Bisexual Character, Bisexual Female Character, Blood and Injury, Dark Brotherhood Questline, F/F, Lesbian Character, Major Character Injury, Mentions of alcoholism, Political Marriage, Restoration Magic, Spoilers for To Kill an Empire (Quest), graphic depiction of injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-16
Updated: 2019-02-16
Packaged: 2019-10-28 21:11:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17794823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dovahgriin/pseuds/dovahgriin
Summary: Iveria comes home, injured and covered in blood. Gisli isn't sure if it's hers, or... someone else's.





	Proditio

**Author's Note:**

> For those who aren't familiar with the characters, here's a quick rundown:  
> \- Iveria is one of my Dovahkiine  
> \- Gisli is the sister of Thane Erikur in Solitude  
> \- Gaius Maro is the asshole commander of the Penitus Oculatus

          Gisli looks up from her book as the front door of Proudspire clicks open and closed. _If Iveria comes back drunk one more time…_ She shuts the sixth volume of _A Dance in Fire_ with a sigh, then stands and goes to go and greet her wife.

          The sight that greets her in the foyer takes her breath away, and not in a good way. Iveria is crumpled on the floor, bruised and bloodied, strange black armor damaged beyond repair. Blood seeps into the porous stone of the floor.

          “What in Oblivion _happened_ to you?!” Gisli strides over to Iveria, kneeling at her side as her hands hover over her wife’s prone form. Iveria looks up and smiles at Gisli. It is a terrible sight to behold, blood staining her teeth crimson and dripping down from her broken nose.

          “I was betrayed,” she rasps, breath coming in short gasps. “Astrid… Astrid told Commander Gaius Maro, well… It doesn’t matter. The plan didn’t work, and now…” Blood bubbles on her lips as she wheezes.

          “Where are you injured?” Gisli doesn’t know much restoration magics, but she can stop the bleeding long enough so that she can run for healing poultices from Angela. Iveria chokes out a laugh.

          “Where am I _not_ injured?” She raises a shaky hand to wipe the blood from her lip; all it does is smear it in a macabre imitation of lip rouge. “I was stabbed in the back. Might’ve, uh, might’ve pierced a lung. It was poisoned. My magicka is drained.”

          Gisli rolls Iveria onto her belly as she whimpers, exposing the ugly wound on her upper back. The edges are ragged and turning black. Gisli sucks in a sharp breath. Blood bubbles out of it as the injured woman breathes.

          “By Talos… They really did poison you.” Gisli’s muttered oath to the Man-God goes unnoticed as she lays a hand over the injury. “This will hurt, I think,” she tells her wife, gathering the soft golden healing magic in her hands and running them over the wound. Iveria tenses and bites down on her glove, muffling a scream.

          Gisli gags at the feeling of flesh knitting itself back together beneath her hand, bile rising sour in her throat. She does this again, and again, and again, unwilling to do a half-assed job. When she is certain that she has healed the wound in Iveria’s back, she pulls back, wiping her hands on the fine fabric of her skirt. It leaves behind a stain in the shape of her hand. Iveria breathes a little more normally, and, satisfied with her handiwork, Gisli jogs to the alchemy station in the storeroom on the lower floor.

          She rummages through the chest next to the alchemy table, pushing aside potions and poisons — _I should organize this mess later on,_ Gisli thinks idly _—_ labeled in careful calligraphy until she wraps her fingers around the bottle that she was looking for. The reddish liquid sloshes in the phial, reminding a slightly-queasy Gisli of the blood dripping from Iveria’s wounds and staining her hands copper. She hurries back upstairs.

          While Gisli was gone, Iveria has pulled herself into a sitting position against a basalt pillar, arms sitting limply by her sides. Her sun-bronzed skin is pale from blood loss and her eyes are hazy with pain. Blood is congealing along her hairline, clumping Iveria’s sweaty hair together. Gisli _tsk’s_ at Iveria, stifling the panic at seeing her wife — her _wife_ — lain so low. It is… unnerving for her.

          “Drink this,” she says, uncorking the phial of potion with her teeth and holding it up to Iveria’s swollen lips. Her wife opens her mouth just enough for Gisli to tilt the contents of the mixture into Iveria’s mouth. It must be bitter – although she keeps drinking it, Iveria’s face scrunches in distaste.

          “Ugh,” she says after pulling back. “Remind me to add honey to the recipe. That tasted like shit.”

          Color begins to return to Iveria’s face after her announcement and Gisli giggles in relief. Iveria smiles up at her, Nordic blue eyes sparkling. “How did you know that this potion was in the chest?”

          “I… I didn’t,” Gisli admits. Iveria raises an eyebrow in silent surprise. “You spend so much time experimenting down there that I thought… I’d hoped… and was proven correct. I can still run to Angela’s, though, if that wasn’t enough.”

          “No, no, you did well.” Gisli flushes at her wife’s praise. “But now that I’m not on the edge of death…” Iveria snaps her fingers and a spark of electricity sizzles between them. “... I need to go.”

          “Wait, what?” Gisli scrambles to stand as Iveria struggles to get her feet underneath herself. “You can’t go! You have to —”

          “I don’t _have_ to do anything,” Iveria snaps, voice cold. “But I _need_ to go. My family… My family is in danger.”

          There’s a dangerous, frantic glint in her eyes; they flash red-gold briefly as she rises to her full height — she is still shorter than Gisli, but the energy surrounding her makes the Nordic woman suddenly feel very, very small — and looks at Gisli, determined. Gisli swallows against the misgivings building in her chest, throat aching with words that she can’t put voice to.

          “I thought _I_ was your family.” Unbidden, unwanted tears well in Gisli’s eyes and she scrubs at them with the back of her hand, suddenly furious with herself for letting her emotions get the better of her. Iveria softens, eyes returning to their usual warm blue.

          “You are. But I have other people who rely on me, too.” She reaches out, like she might brush Gisli’s cheek with her fingertips, but then pulls back, uncertainty dancing in her eyes. Iveria clears her throat, and the moment is broken. “Stay inside, Gisli. Stay safe.”

          Iveria turns invisible with a wave of her hand, and Gisli hears first her footsteps and then the sound of the storeroom door opening and closing before silence falls upon the house again. Sighing, Gisli turns to the puddle of blood on the floor. “Damn her, now I have this mess to clean up…”


End file.
